Will We Return to Hutta in 7.5?

I'm not usually one for doing much speculating about what the future will bring, as I'm quite happy to just let things come at me as they are, but today I'd like to discuss something that I (surprisingly) haven't seen brought up anywhere else at least - that we might end up going back to Hutta in 7.5, and that the devs have actually been hinting at it too, just without saying it outright.

At the end of my review of Chains in the Dark, I asked whether anyone knew who the Rodian on the loading screen was, since I hadn't encountered a character like him anywhere in the story. At the time I just wondered whether there was some story variation or side mission that I'd missed, but the subject ended up sparking some interesting conversations on Discord, during which Jawaface and Kal pointed out that there were actually other things on the splash art that hadn't featured in the story, such as the Hutt Palace on the right side of the screen, and the ring structure that surrounds the logo in front of Heta.

Now, my first thought was that maybe there had once been a plan to have 7.4's story take place on Hutta for Imperial characters, but on second pass that didn't really make sense as - even if that had ever been the plan - it would have had to be scrapped long ago, leaving them with plenty of time to come up with an updated image.

But what if Hutta wasn't something that was scrapped, but rather something that's still to come? When 7.4 was first announced, I noted that revisiting Ord Mantell matched something Keith had said for the tenth anniversary, that we'd get to "return to where your character’s journey first began so long ago". This has now come true for Republic (tech-using) characters - going to Hutta next would make for a nice mirror experience for Imperials.

Using the key art to hint at something that hasn't been revealed yet also isn't something that's entirely unheard of for SWTOR. When the Legacy of the Sith loading screen was first revealed for example, we got a lot of information about the different NPCs we'd be interacting with... with the notable exception of a certain green twi'lek in the middle who would later turn out to be Sa'har.

In the recent past, they've also given us these new loading screens every other patch - not just for expansion releases - meaning that we got one for 7.0 (which continued to be used throughout 7.1) and then we got a new one for 7.2 (which didn't change for 7.3). Based on that, it's not unreasonable to assume that the 7.4 loading screen might stay with us throughout 7.5 - and maybe the artist(s) at Broadsword decided to reflect that in the art this time, while also gently teasing about future content to come.

Oh, and that ring structure under Heta? Intisar commented in the same Discord conversation that it could be seen in the Darth Nul flashbacks, but I couldn't verify that when taking an alt through that content again the other day. It does however occur to me that it looks kind of like the machine that Master Orr destroys in the Disorder trailer (god, I love that cinematic so much). Based on what Malgus said, that machine was meant to find Force sensitives and not a weapon, but you know... he could've been lying, or there simply could've been more to it. It would be interesting if Heta's efforts resulted in a similar device.

(As a side note, there's also something in data mining that supports the idea of Hutta coming in 7.5, but I only mention this to say that I'm aware of it. I don't seek out data-mined information since I'm not actively trying to spoil myself, not to mention that it can also lead to disappointment when it makes people expect content that then never actually comes out, which I've seen happen more than once. I think the hints in the art are on a whole other level though.)